Russia's Gazprom Enlists Children
To Tout Benefits of Paying for Gas

By

Jeanne Whalen Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

Updated June 29, 2001 12:01 a.m. ET

MOSCOW -- As shareholders gather Friday for a tense annual meeting at OAO Gazprom, the Russian gas giant is offering some comic relief -- a book of cartoons, poems and stories by schoolchildren titled "Why We Must Pay for Gas."

Giving up on adults who've grown accustomed to stiffing the company, Gazprom handed out paints and crayons to the next generation and asked them to wax lyrical about the sanctity of gas bills.